Neet Owain. I love things like that. Oh, and the huge oceans are normal btw.

Same here. I usually play a game for a month, maybe two before I realize I've seen and done everything and start getting bored. So I credit the frequent updates for keeping me interested. Needless to say I'm a bit concerned about the upcoming full release.

Ironically, I've done very little with the new content since 1.7. There is still a good bit of 1.7 and 1.8 I haven't used at all. The potion dynamics seem interesting but I'm not sure if I'll use them. It feels like they're adding all this content to fill out the game's challenge, but then the actual challenge (going to The End and defeating a dragon) doesn't amount to much. Sure, maybe the dragon is super hard to kill. But then what happens in between? I liked Minecraft most when it followed a simple yet clear progression:

1. Start with nothing.
2. Get some wood, make wood tools/shelter.
3. Use wood tools to get stone, make stone tools/better shelter.
4. Use your stone tools and torches to go caving, find iron, gold, and diamonds.
5. Make iron/diamond tools and armor, keep exploring for caves and dungeons.
6. Build yourself up a nice inventory of goods, both manufactured and found. Presumably, in the process you've built a sweet residence, as well.

The Nether had the potential to add a further challenge. You could only mine obsidian with diamond tools, so you had to have reached the limits of crafting already. Problem was, once you got to the Nether, you were presented with a few new block types (none of which are essential) and one powerful new enemy. Why was there no potential for "Nether tools," somehow more powerful/durable than the other types? It just came off very half-baked.

I like that there is more content, but I also get the impression there isn't much of a progression anymore. Once you get diamond tools, then what? Making potions and enchanting things seems more of a lateral move, a sidebar.

I don't know, maybe the final game will be awesome. But from what I've heard about the pre-releases, it appears a bunch of things were added with no attention paid to creating a cohesive experience. Minecraft had a cohesive experience at the end of Alpha, even if it had no actual endgame. What you did to move from one step to the next at least made sense.

Maybe we should take our existing server world, carve out the parts we've built on, and move them to another location. Start over with a new spawn, and see what happens. I wonder if it's possible to run multiple "overworlds" in parallel, using types of portals to go between them? I'd be okay with starting a new world and leaving the old one accessible that way, too.

Even now, I'm tempted to head out into the unknown with just some tools and supplies and set up a new home. But I may not do that until the game reaches release.

Yeah, I prefer it as a sandbox game with no goals other than the ones you set yourself. My goal in exploring was to find some of the new stuff, and found that island as a result. Not sure what I think about moving to another location though.

I don't really get the point of creative mode. You have this entire world to explore, but you already have everything, so why would you? I feel I'd get bored of that even more quickly than survival. I think the fact that you have to find things in order to proceed makes it more interesting.

The core gameplay is fine, to a point, but yeah, I agree. It's as if they keep adding things while forgetting the core gameplay elements that are needed, like say nether tools to complement the nether. And then those new things are half-baked as you say, so it doesn't amount to much in the realm of new things to do. I'm puzzled as to why they've even released villages in 1.8 if NPCs weren't ready. I'd think it would be far more impressive to see those villages with NPCs in them the first time you see them, so I think they could have waited until 1.9 to release villages. But again, I think it's going to be another thing that will feel like a novelty, unless it really feels worth it to find one. It remains to be seen wether they'll make us want to go back to them.

I'm not a fan of enchanting weapons. I'd much prefer having to level up and choosing skills as that would give more of a feeling of progression. With enchantments, it doesn't seem nearly as exciting. They don't seem to be a part of your character like skills are and generally give you less a feeling of attachment towards your character.

They want the launch to be at MineCon and they couldn't book the a convention centre in Las Vegas on 11-11-11, so they pushed the release back a week. And they're not releasing an official Beta 1.9, just the pre-releases, so the next version is likely to be v1.0.

I've messed around in the pre-releases as they've been released, but I haven't played the game in weeks. I can't bring myself to play without the new features but I don't want to play the pre-releases in case they cause more chunk errors with the full release.

Oh, I guess there's the experimentation angle. Can you transfer things you've made in creative mode to a server? See, I'd like that feature, but then I like playing where others are playing as it feels lonely otherwise. I have a feeling I'd get bore very quickly. I don't like playing SMP much as it is.

Speaking of Minecon. I'd hate to think that it would be similar to the official forums.

I've encountered some weird bugs today. How about this water floating in mid-air?

Or the squid that was becoming one with the cave? It was alive and it was moving its tendrils, but it was pretending to be a dirt block.

I'd love to have played the early versions of the game, to be there to see the early tests, even just to look over Notch's or Jeb's shoulder while I hand them their coffee or something. I bet it's a fascinating experience to be part of an indie dev team.

Yeah, I think the first time I played it was early last year, by which point it was in Alpha (so past the initial versions: Classic, Indev, and Infdev.) I think it's safe to say it's come a lot further in the past year than it did in the previous year. I'm not convinced all the additions from 1.8 onward are good ideas, but I guess we'll see once the game is "finished."

I'd love to have played the early versions of the game, to be there to see the early tests, even just to look over Notch's or Jeb's shoulder while I hand them their coffee or something. I bet it's a fascinating experience to be part of an indie dev team.

Click to expand...

There's an application out there that can roll back the version of Minecraft you have, Link. It goes back to the 1.0.x Alphas and a couple of InfDev releases. I've used it a few time to go back to 1.7.3 so I could played with some mods that were slow to be updated.

It's kinda fun looking back, makes me really miss the old world generation, it was so much more "Minecrafty" than what we have now.

I bought it just a few days after it went Beta (1.4? 1.5?). So I just missed the whole "Alpha buyers get all future updates for free" thing.

I'm REALLY looking forward to release date though. I've been dying to play around with all the goodies in 1.9.
For me, the more features, the better. Its kinda like having fun with a basic Lego set, then suddenly getting another one with new gears and wheels n' stuff for Christmas.
Plus I can finally try out some mods, which I've avoided up til now since I knew they'd probably be broken by the next update.